SourceWatch:Contributing

< About SourceWatch Related: SourceWatch's Purpose

This site is built by ordinary wise people, like you. You don't need any special credentials to participate, and the Center for Media and Democracy which publishes SourceWatch has a long-standing tradition of skepticism about "experts" and whose interests they really represent. The fact that SourceWatch is open to everyone is what makes these articles ever-improving, as we review and build on each other's work.

Dive in. You can just dive right in and create or work on any article you like! You can edit any article directly, or if you want to add your thoughts, questions or comments about an article, you can go to the article's talk page (click on the 'Discuss the page' link in the sidebar or at the bottom of the article). You don't even need to be logged in to edit articles, although it is still a good idea to log in as this gives you access to more of the site's features and makes it easier to communicate with other users.

Focus on the facts. To work together effectively in building this specialized, collaborative encyclopedia, SourceWatch has some established policies and ground rules. It is important to write articles that focus on documented facts. SourceWatch does not require a "neutral point of view,"; instead, our standard is fair, accurate, and documented. Opinions and views may be cited with attribution in most instances within the mission and scope of SourceWatch, if made apparent as such. Do be aware of your point of view and if you are taking a position on an issue, take it early and overtly so others can see your declared bias.

Footnotes are your friends. Please use high quality sources, include thorough references and documentation supporting the facts in your article, and avoid merely rhetorical or inflammatory language. (If you are using or defining a rhetorical or inflammatory term then explain it in an article where it can be put in context - redirect all references to competing terms to one place.) This is critical:  we want the SourceWatch to be a useful information resource for journalists, activists and the general public, so please do not treat it as a debate forum. Any discussion about topics should be mainly directed at improving articles to the point where they are useful to citizens and journalists, the main consumers of our work. So, please reference sources or indicate that references are needed.

Please don't bury the lead! SourceWatch favors news style writing, which is, simply: put the important material first, and then the rest in descending order of importance.  Don't bury the lead and waste "above-the-fold" space in SourceWatch on minutiae. Get to the point and draw readers in so they can easily understand the important things about the bold-faced names and key policies in the news.

Be bold! New contributors are always welcome to SourceWatch, and you are encouraged to be bold in editing pages. You don't have to worry too much about making mistakes, as all contributions are monitored by other contributors at the recent changes page, which is accessible from the left hand column's hot issues and pages box.

Have fun. You are helping to write history. We hope you have fun!


 * Getting Started on SourceWatch